Are people on H-1B visas worried about the deportation plans?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand how this is a question. Of course not. They are here legally.

Do you actually trust Trump to do what he says?

[Anonymous]

Yes, people on work visas are here legally and should be safe in the near term.
However, as PPs said, the H!B visa program is rife with fraud and abuse and hurts American workforce, especially the younger cohort. It needs a major cleanup and more oversight.
Looking at you, Capital One, Fannie and Freddy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you want them to be?

While Americans may want those jobs, it is unlikely they would ever get them. Do you think a company wants to go through all of the hassle of hiring layers and dealing with immigration. It’s because that’s who is the most qualified for the job. No one is stopping you from applying.

Most of the companies hiring in H-1B visas are large multinational corporations. They aren't hiring a lawyer to process a single H-1B visa. They have a team of in house immigration lawyers who process visa applications, often in multiple countries, for scores of employees every year.

And it's just not true that there are no Americans qualified fur these jobs. Usually they are simply jobs with a high degree of competition for qualified applicants-- the program helps reduce competition for those jobs, which is great for companies but not for the skilled American workers who are qualified for these roles.

And even if there is a shortage of qualified American applicants, shouldn't the US be seeking to educate more citizens for these good, high paying jobs? Quite often H-1B applicants attended US universities to obtain the specialized knowledge needed for these jobs. Foreign students at top American universities keep increasing. These are most often kids of wealthy families who can afford to pay the full cost of international tuition. Isn't part of the argument with Trump that qualifies white Americans are being kept out of top schools by "DEI" candidates? Well a huge amount of the "diversity" at top schools is wealthy foreign nationals.

So it's like a scheme whereby universities give spots that could go to Americans to foreign students in the name of diversity (even though really it's about the higher tuition they can charge these full pay applicants), and then those students use these degrees to get jobs their corporate employees claim there are too few Americans qualified for.

It just seems like if Americans are pissed off about immigrants taking jobs and resources, the H-1B program is a great example of a system designed to screw over Americans. Whereas I don't know a single American who is upset about not being able to get a job picking fruit or de-boning chickens at a processing plant.

So, basically, you don't believe in capitalism.

Also, you might want to tell Trump that his Truth Social company offshored some of their IT jobs. If these companies can't get those visas, they'll just offshore more of the jobs, taking the tax base with it.

I didn't vote for Trump and think he's a grade A a$$hat. And capitalism isn't something you "believe" in -- it's an economic system that can work well but also has to be regulated. We regulate capitalism in the US in lots of different ways. Trump's proposed tariffs and deportation plans are both intended to be checks on capitalism in the name of protecting American citizens and their access to jobs. Most capitalist countries have at least some restrictions on immigration in order to protect citizens.

I'm pointing out the hypocrisy in suggesting that we round up and deport a bunch of migrant workers doing jobs that Americans fundamentally do not want while not talking about an entire group of immigrants who have jobs Americans do want, that pay well and and offer greater security. And the argument is "oh well we don't have enough qualified Americans" but then a lot of H-1B visa holders were educated in the US at US universities where Americans want to attend and currently get rejected in favor of "diverse" candidates who aren't actually diverse (many of these students code as white), simply wealthy.

Why are we talking about deporting millions of workers doing jobs we won't be able to fill when those workers are gone but we say nothing about the workers taking jobs Americans would love to fill if given the opportunity, while many Americans are deprived of the opportunity to gain the necessary education to get these jobs due to American university spots being filled by foreign students who buy their way in?

I'm just asking questions.

Because those visa holders are here *legally*.

Why do they offshore jobs? That's called capitalism. The minute you start talking regulation, Rs would call you a socialist.

Basically, MAGA are populists. They want regulations and taxes to protect American workers -- America first. But, they don't want government to interfere with business outside of that. They want good paying jobs, but they don't want any regulations that ensure it (ie, minimum wage). They want benefits, but they don't like ACA.

MAGA are dumb. The things that they want are things that Dems were trying to provide.

MAGA think corporations should take care of its employees, but even Trump's hotels hire visa and undocumented workers.

Dreamers and people granted asylum are also here legally. Children born in the US to immigrant parents are also here legally. Trump is threatening to deport all those people.

If I were here on an H-1B visa, I would have ZERO faith that my visa status was safe.

Work visas are different than Dreamers or asylum seekers.

They are not going to deport visa workers because then even Trump's businesses would be impacted.

MAGA can want specific workers to be deported, but then they should not scream about "socialism". A country that protects workers, regulates companies to provide good pay and benefits over corporate profits is not a capitalist country. I think MAGA likes to call those countries socialist countries.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, people on work visas are here legally and should be safe in the near term.
However, as PPs said, the H!B visa program is rife with fraud and abuse and hurts American workforce, especially the younger cohort. It needs a major cleanup and more oversight.
Looking at you, Capital One, Fannie and Freddy.

+1 the large banks are some of the worse offenders. They absolutely use H-1B to hire cheaper foreign labor for jobs that could be done by Americans. Most of the jobs are not even specialize positions. They'll hire economists and claim they need subject matter expertise specific to the role that Americans lack but it's actually a more general role. It's an easy way to hire people at 20-30k less than what they'd have to pay an American even though there are Americans with degrees in economics who are un- or underemployed.

I would LOVE to see this program cleaned up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, people on work visas are here legally and should be safe in the near term.
However, as PPs said, the H!B visa program is rife with fraud and abuse and hurts American workforce, especially the younger cohort. It needs a major cleanup and more oversight.
Looking at you, Capital One, Fannie and Freddy.

What would be awesome is if we had an administration who was interested in fixing the immigration system at all levels to address this kind of fraud and abuse, which hurts American workers. The H-1B program should be closely examined and some of the categories for which H-1B hires are currently allowed should be eliminated or reduced. And companies claiming H-1B needs should be held to the legal standards for proving a role merits the hire -- the oversight of the program is really minimal and that's why orgs like Cap One and the insurance giants can abuse it. They know no one will look too closely.

I'd love this to be rolled into a comprehensive immigration overhaul that also fixed the broken asylum system, addressed border security, ramped up deportations of undocumented workers who commit crimes (I'd expand this to all crime including white collar and financial crimes, not just violent crime -- I'd like to deport murderers but I am also okay with kicking out people who commit insurance fraud or embezzle money), and ALSO creates a guest worker program that legalizes a lot of the now illegal immigration that is an essential part of the US economy.

This is the sort of thing for which it really should not be hard to find bipartisan support but Trump has been holding the issue of immigration hostage so he can use it as a cudgel to win elections and punish people. It's very very stupid.

[Anonymous]

Stephen Miller is supposedly spending all his time attacking legal immigration, including the H1 visa program in particular.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Stephen Miller is supposedly spending all his time attacking legal immigration, including the H1 visa program in particular.

Trump's wife should be deported. She lied on her citizenship application.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stephen Miller is supposedly spending all his time attacking legal immigration, including the H1 visa program in particular.

Trump's wife should be deported. She lied on her citizenship application.

Exactly!

[Anonymous]

A lot of those visa workers in tech eventually become citizens. Some have even created patents for tech companies.

If you look at the winners of things like the science olympiad, many of those students are children of immigrants, and I bet some of those parents came on those work visas.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A lot of those visa workers in tech eventually become citizens. Some have even created patents for tech companies.

If you look at the winners of things like the science olympiad, many of those students are children of immigrants, and I bet some of those parents came on those work visas.

But a lot more others bought their higher education diplomas, falsified resumes, and are now making $$$ for their masters - minority and women-owner small businesses holders of Federal contracts for civilian agencies like Education Transportation or HUD. If you wonder why you can't get FAFSA to work, here is your answer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A lot of those visa workers in tech eventually become citizens. Some have even created patents for tech companies.

If you look at the winners of things like the science olympiad, many of those students are children of immigrants, and I bet some of those parents came on those work visas.

Some, not all.

The point is not that everyone in the US on an H-1B visa shouldn't be here, but that the program has a lot of fraud and abuse that should be routed out.

If you want to fix the immigration system you can't ignored this visa program. The program admitted more applicants in 2023 than ever before -- over 750k workers. And the jobs they fill are high paying. If there is fraud in the system where companies are exploiting H-1B labor when there are Americans available for these jobs, that's a significant number of jobs that are going to foreign workers.

Should also note that H-1B denials reached an all time high under Trump the first time, with nearly a quarter of all applications being denied at one point. This is not to be confused with the restrictions on H-1B visas that were put in place during COVID (which substantially reduced the number of visa holders entering the country in 2020 and 2021) -- his administration simply rejected more of these applications than prior administrations.

Even if you are already on a granted visa this should concern you because if you have to change jobs, a crack down on H-1B visas could make it harder for you to find another job. Since economic volatility during Trump could also make layoffs more likely (especially in tech and finance which are more likely to have H-1B recipents than other industries and both particularly susceptible to cyclical downturns), this should concern H-1B visa holders as well as anyone currently on a student visa and hoping to apply for the program in the next few years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No! Of course not.

Why not?

Because people who follow immigration laws don't need to worry about deportation of people who broke laws to get into the country?
Legal vs. illegal.
Documented vs. UNdocumented

[Anonymous]

I don’t think those visa holders are in any kind of jeopardy during the period that the visa is valid. Now, maybe renewal? That’s a different question.

As much as I believe the “Dreamers” should be given a path to citizenship, they aren’t the same legally as those with valid visas.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No! Of course not.

Why not?

Because people who follow immigration laws don't need to worry about deportation of people who broke laws to get into the country?
Legal vs. illegal.
Documented vs. UNdocumented

A visa is a temporary document. It can be revoked.

Some H-1B holders may have obtained their visas fraudulently and not even know it-- because the application is actually done by the company, an employer can falsify their description of a position or their need for a foreign worker and it would make the visa illegal and invalid even if the visa holders didn't participate in the fraud.

Also the focus on immigrants with criminal records will absolutely extend to some legal immigrants and viewed as a reason to revoke or deny renewal. And people underestimate how far reaching that can be. You might view yourself as law abiding but if you get into a disagreement with a neighbor and lose your temper, that could be an assault charge. Maybe you make extra cash by walking dogs in your neighborhood-- if you aren't reporting that income or if that side hustle amounts to a side business that isn't properly registered and paying taxes, this could be used to revoke or deny your visa.

The administration has broad leeway in how the H-1B program is administered and can do a lot without an act of Congress or further appropriations. Since a lot of the other plans Trump has suggested WILL require Congress to act or may be hung up in the courts on constitutional issues, I wouldn't be confident H-1B holders are safe.

[Anonymous]

So much ignorance and misinformation on this thread. It's really no wonder that immigrants have been made out to be the boogeyman so easily.